ARYNESS JOY WICKENS, EX-BLS DEPUTY, DIES

February 8, 1991

Aryness Joy Wickens, 90, an economist and statistician who was assistant, then deputy commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics from 1946 to 1961, died of cardiopulmonary arrest Feb. 2 at a nursing home in Jackson, Miss.

Mrs. Wickens worked 42 years for the federal government before retiring in 1970. She served as an economic adviser to several secretaries of labor during the 1960s, and in that capacity designed and implemented a system of operating statistics for the department's Office of Manpower, Automation and Training. Later, she directed special projects within the department.

She began her government career in Washington in the late 1920s at the Federal Reserve Board, where she helped establish an index of industrial production. She later worked at the predecessor agency of the Office of Management and Budget.

In 1933, she served on a committee set up by the American Statistical Association to advise Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins on the Bureau of Labor Statistics program, then became an assistant to the commissioner of the bureau. In 1940, she became chief of the bureau's branch of prices and cost of living, which was greatly expanded during World War II to produce data needed by various war agencies.

Mrs. Wickens was a delegate to several international conferences. In 1960, she was among the first recipients of the Federal Women's Award.

She was a former president of the American Statistical Association and in 1930 served on an association committee to advise the secretary of commerce on unemployment. In 1976 and 1977, she was director of a statistics study group of the Commission on Federal Paperwork.

A native of Bellingham, Wash., Mrs. Wickens graduated from the University of Washington. She received a master's degree in economics from the University of Chicago. She taught economics at Mount Holyoke College before coming to Washington. A former resident of Vienna, she moved to Mississippi in 1986.

Her husband of 35 years, retired Air Force Lt. Col. David L. Wickens, died in 1970.

Survivors include a son, Donaldson V. Wickens of Jackson, Miss., and three grandchildren.

ESTHER BECK TIEDT CURRIE

Lockheed Clerk

Esther Beck Tiedt Currie, 92, a retired clerk at Lockheed Aircraft in Marietta, Ga., died of cancer Feb. 4 at her home in Fairfax Station.

Mrs. Currie was born in Asheville, N.C. She worked 17 years at Lockheed Aircraft before retiring in 1968. She moved to the Washington area from Atlanta in 1981.

Her first husband, Clifford Nelson Tiedt, died in 1958, and her second husband, George Currie, died in 1970.

Survivors include a daughter from her first marriage, Patricia Tiedt Langford of Fairfax Station; four grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

RICHARD E. CARPENTER

NEA Official

Richard E. Carpenter, 79, a retired business manager of the National Education Association and a former assistant superintendent of the Montgomery County schools, died of cancer Jan. 28 at the Maine Medical Center in Portland, Maine.

Dr. Carpenter, a resident of Falmouth, Maine, was born in Charlotte, Vt. He graduated from Dartmouth College and received master's and doctoral degrees in education administration from Columbia University.

About 1940, he moved to the Washington area and joined the faculty of the Landon School for Boys, a private school in Bethesda. During World War II, he served in the Army Air Forces in the South Pacific.

After the war, he went to work for the Montgomery County schools, where he was assistant superintendent from 1947 to 1953. He then became the business manager of the NEA. He retired in 1973. A former resident of Bethesda, Dr. Carpenter moved to Maine at that time.

His first wife, the former June Nettleship, died in 1972.

Survivors include his wife, Brenda K. Carpenter of Falmouth; two stepsons, John G. Shelley III of Owls Head, Maine, and William B. Shelley of Canton, Ga.; and three stepgrandchildren.

RUTH ELIZABETH MAHER

Navy Support Volunteer

Ruth Elizabeth Maher, 82, a volunteer with Navy support organizations, died of a heart attack Feb. 5 at Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis.

A resident of Annapolis for the past six years, Mrs. Maher lived in Falls Church and Frederick, Md., from 1957 to 1973. Earlier, she accompanied her husband, Navy Rear Adm. Joseph B. Maher, to assignments in London, New York and California.

From 1950 to 1953, when they were posted in Washington, Mrs. Maher was an assistant to the director of Georgetown University's dental school.

She was a native of Meredith, N.H., and studied nursing and medical secretary work at the school associated with St. Mary's Hospital in San Diego.

Mrs. Maher worked as a volunteer for Carl Vinson Hall, a residence in McLean for retired Navy members and their spouses. She was president of the wives association of the U.S. Naval Academy class of 1927.

While living in New York, she was active in the Navy Relief Society.

In addition to her husband, now retired and living in Annapolis, she is survived by a daughter, Joan Elizabeth Maher of Frederick, and two grandsons.

JOHN KIERNAN ROULEAU

Science Officer

John Kiernan Rouleau, 84, a former employee of the Atomic Energy Commission who became a State Department official who specialized in science and technology in France and Latin America, died Feb. 4 at a hospital in Boynton Beach, Fla., after a heart attack.

Dr. Rouleau was born in Boston. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and received a doctorate in biochemistry from Boston University.

He taught at MIT, Boston University and Boston College until 1940, when he joined the Army and served at ordnance facilities in Illinois, New York and Virginia.

He was science adviser to military attaches at U.S. embassies in Ottawa and Paris, then in 1951 came to Washington where he worked 10 years as a science officer at the AEC. He joined the State Department in 1962 and retired from there in 1967.

Since retirement he had lived in Boynton Beach.

His wife, Alice Louise Desmond Rouleau, died in 1987.

Survivors include three children, John Kiernan Rouleau II and Raymond Anthony Rouleau, both of Boynton Beach, and Alice Patricia Rouleau of Los Angeles; nine grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

MARGARET CAROTHERS BURDICK

Republican Party Member

Margaret Carothers Burdick, 91, a past president of the D.C. League of Republican Women and the Ladies' Board of the old Garfield Hospital, died of respiratory failure Feb. 4 at the Washington Home. She had Alzheimer's disease.

Mrs. Burdick had lived in Washington since 1926, when she married Dr. William F. Burdick, a physician. She was born in Shippensburg, Pa., and she attended Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pa.

During World War II, she was a Red Cross Gray Lady at the Bethesda Naval Hospital.

Mrs. Burdick was particularly active in the Republican Party during the Eisenhower administration in the 1950s. She was a member of the Women's National Republican Club in New York City and the National Federation of Republican Women, and a founding member of the Capitol Hill Club, a Republican organization in Washington.

In addition to her husband, of Washington, survivors include two children, Nancy Burdick Galbraith of Washington and William Henderson Burdick of Bellevue, Wash.; five grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

JOSEPHA BOYD FULLER HEGE

Chevy Chase Church Member

Josepha Boyd Fuller Hege, 67, a 50-year member of the Chevy Chase Presbyterian Church, died Feb. 4 at the Sycamore Acres nursing home in Derwood. She had Alzheimer's disease.

Mrs. Hege, who lived in Chevy Chase, was born in New Bedford, Mass., where her family was vacationing from their home in Washington. She grew up in Washington and graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School. She also graduated from the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio.

She and her family maintained a summer residence at Deep Creek Lake, Md., and Mrs. Hege was a member of the Deep Creek Yacht Club.

Survivors include her husband of 45 years, Edwin C. Hege of Chevy Chase; three sons, Edwin F. Hege of Chevy Chase, Henry F. Hege of Duck, N.C., and Thomas F. Hege of Alexandria; a sister, Katharine Fuller Watson of Tacoma, Wash.; and six grandchildren.

WALTER SOHASKY

Commercial Artist, Businessman

Walter Sohasky, 72, the owner for 30 years of Arts & Graphics, a commercial art business in Annandale, died of a heart attack Feb. 6 at Fairfax Hospital. He lived in Annandale.

Mr. Sohasky retired seven years ago after nearly 35 years as a commercial artist and calligrapher.

He was a native of Dysart, Saskatchewan, who served as a pilot in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II.

He moved to the United States in 1948 and settled in Baltimore, where he worked as a commercial artist. He moved to Annandale in 1960.

Survivors include his wife, Elizabeth Mary Sohasky of Annandale; two daughters, Debra Brown of Springfield and Janine Ann Sohasky of Falls Church; and a son, Mark Anson Sohasky of Herndon.

LOUISE THORNE TROWBRIDGE

Christian Scientist

Louise Thorne Trowbridge, 93, a lifelong Christian Scientist and a member of the Fifth Church of Christ Scientist in Washington, died of pneumonia Feb. 5 at her home in McLean.

Mrs. Trowbridge was the widow of A. Buel Trowbridge, who died in 1981. They had lived in France, Germany and Iraq before settling in the Washington area in 1955. While in Iraq, Mrs. Trowbridge had been a volunteer pottery teacher.

She was born in Evanston, Ill., and as a young woman had been a volunteer relief worker in areas of Europe devastated by World War I. She had also studied in Paris.

Later she traveled about the world with her first husband, John Bovingdon. Their marriage ended in divorce.

Survivors include a daughter of her first marriage, Joya Bovingdon Cox of Washington; two stepchildren, Alexander B. Trowbridge of Washington and Judy Trowbridge Cullen of Brooklin, Maine; a sister, Frances Thorne Horne of Barrington, Ill.; a brother, Bruce Thorne of Lake Forest, Ill.; four grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.